First lesbian archbishop laments people leaving church over her sexuality: 'Very hurtful'

GAFCON leader points to Romans 1:26: 'God gave them over to shameful lusts'

By Jon Brown, Christian Post Reporter Tuesday, December 30, 2025

The first openly lesbian archbishop in Christian history recently claimed she finds it "very hurtful" that some people are leaving her church in protest of her gender and sexuality.

"There are still patches all over the place where people continue to struggle with women in leadership and I have to respect that," the Most Rev. Cherry Vann, 67, who serves as bishop of Monmouth and was elected in July as the 15th archbishop of Wales, told the BBC last week.

"The Church in Wales is working hard to welcome LGBT+ people, but also I respect that there are people in the Church in Wales who find that really difficult," she said. "Some, sadly, have felt the need to leave and I take that very seriously."

Vann's election last summer by an electoral college composed of clergy and lay members of the Church of Wales, which became an independent part of the Anglican Communion in 1920, caused an eruption within global Anglicanism.

The Anglican Communion is also fracturing over King Charles III appointing Dame Sarah Mullally as the first female archbishop of Canterbury, who has also expressed support for homosexuality and will be formally installed in 2026.

Vann's election despite her lesbianism led to criticism from conservative Anglican groups such as the Anglican Church of Nigeria, which broke ties with the Church of Wales shortly after she was appointed.

The Most Rev. Laurent Mbanda, who serves as chairman of the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (GAFCON) Primates Council, issued a scathing statement last August describing Vann's election as "an act of apostasy" and "another painful nail in the coffin of Anglican orthodoxy" that necessitates schism.

Citing the warning in Romans 1:26 that teaches widespread homosexuality among women is a sign of profound divine judgment upon a society, Mbanda said, "We must stand again against the relentless pressure of Anglican revisionists who blatantly impose their immorality upon Christ's precious church."

Vann, who lives with her civil partner, Wendy, and their two dogs, told the BBC that the opposition to her has at times been "quite hostile."

"It can be very hurtful," she said. "It's hard to hear some of the things that people say, but I think it's important that there is the space for them to say that."

"I don't want people to feel shut down or silenced just because I hold a different view," she continued. "But it does nevertheless hurt because it feels like an attack on who I am and who God has made me to be."

"We have to find a way as a Church to respect one another's views and find a commonality in our faith in Christ, despite our differences."

Vann also noted that some find her story "fascinating."

"I had a lot of people contact me rejoicing at my election and saying how much hope and strength they get from the fact that there is now a woman in the role – and a civilly partnered woman at that," she said. "I've had the opposite as well. That's just life."

Last summer, Vann told Premier Christian News she always believed she was gay and "never heard God say to me, who you are is wrong, who you love is wrong, you are living in sin."

"I have never heard that from God, and that's all I can say," she added.

Vann replaced the Rt. Rev. Andrew John, who resigned in June after only three-and-a-half years in office. Though he was not directly implicated, his departure followed the release of a safeguarding review at Bangor Cathedral that found evidence of a culture involving sexual misconduct, bullying, blurred sexual boundaries and excessive drinking.